The invention concerns a unit for automatic delivery of specimen slides to a coverslipper. The invention further concerns a method for automatic delivery of specimen slides to a coverslipper.
An automatic stainer and coverslipper are two separate units. According to the existing art, after the staining operation the specimen slides need to be manually removed from the stainer and inserted into the coverslipper in order to start the process of covering them with coverslips (see Leica brochure CV 5000). Despite the automation of the individual units, manual loading of the coverslipper is necessary. Smooth operation requires that laboratory personnel occupy themselves, at very short intervals of a few minutes, with removing racks from the stainer and loading the coverslipper.
German Utility Model DE 295 14 506 discloses a specimen slide coverslipper. The specimen slides are located in a magazine device with which they can be introduced into the coverslipper. There a covering medium is applied onto the specimen slides, and a transport device is used to remove a coverslip from a magazine and place it onto the specimen slide. The subject matter of the Utility Model is not capable, however, of proposing an automatic solution with which the specimen slides can be transferred into the coverslipper.
It is the object of the invention to create a unit with which specimen slides are delivered from a stainer to a coverslipper with no demands on an operator. The intention is also to ensure delivery in the most automatic, effective, and malfunction-free fashion possible.
This object is achieved by means of a unit comprising a housing including a bottom, a front panel, a back wall opposite the front panel, and first and second side walls opposite one another, wherein the housing has a passage therethrough defined by respective cutouts in the first and the second side walls; a transfer position for a rack of specimen slides provided near the cutout in the first side wall; and a transport apparatus extending out from the transfer position to beyond the cutout in the second side wall.
A further object of the invention is to create a method with which specimen slides are delivered from a stainer to a coverslipper with no demands on an operator. The delivery is intended to be as automated as possible, and efficient to a high degree.
The above object is achieved by means of a method that comprises the steps of depositing a rack with specimen slides in a transfer position of a unit for delivering specimen slides to the coverslipper; picking up the rack from the transfer position using a transport apparatus; displacing the rack in the unit toward the coverslipper; and lowering the rack with the specimen slides into the coverslipper.
It has proven particularly advantageous that the unit comprises a housing which also possesses a front panel. By opening the front panel the user can, for example, remove the empty racks and those temporarily stored in the unit. The unit itself comprises a passage that is defined substantially by a first and a second cutout in the first and the second side walls of the unit. The unit defines a transfer position for racks in the region of the cutout in the first side wall, and a transport apparatus extends out substantially from the transfer position to beyond the cutout in the second side wall. The unit is arranged between the stainer and the coverslipper. From the stainer, a rack with specimen slides is transferred to the transfer position in the unit. The transfer is accomplished with a transport arm, movable in two axes, in the stainer. The transport apparatus that is connected to the unit effects transport of the rack from the transfer position into the coverslipper or from the coverslipper into the storage position. The transport apparatus is substantially parallel to the back wall of the unit.
The transport apparatus comprises a rail, parallel to the back wall of the unit, on which a gripper for the racks is displaceable perpendicular to and parallel to the rail.
In the unit itself, a storage position for empty racks, i.e. racks without specimen slides, is provided between the first and the second side wall. The storage position can be configured as a chute that is arranged at an inclination with respect to the bottom of the unit in such a way that the racks without specimen slides slide toward the front panel.
The method for automatic delivery of specimen slides to a coverslipper is advantageously characterized in that a rack with specimen slides is deposited in a transfer position of a unit for delivering specimen slides to the coverslipper. The racks are then picked up from the transfer position by a transport apparatus. The rack is displaced in the unit toward the coverslipper by means of the transport apparatus, and the rack is lowered into the coverslipper.